DILLSBURG, Pa. — On Saturday, the After School Satan Club hosted a Satanic Temple event at Northern York High School.
The event was in the works for months and was approved by the Northern York County School Board back in August.
Dozens of people from the community stood outside of school grounds to protest the event.
“Our priorities are completely messed up," said one protestor. "Satan gets his day, I guess.”
“They’re giving them access to our children," said John Ritchie. "They should be nowhere near any schools.”
John Ritchie is part of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property. He says he’s outraged the event was allowed to go on, and says his organization is working to get Satan out of schools.
“We are here to say that America is one nation under God; we don’t want Satanism in our schools and we need to do something about it," said Ritchie.
The scheduling of the Satanic event comes just a few days after Northern York hosted a prayer night by the Christian-affiliated Dillsburg Community Worship and Prayer.
Back in August, Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves argued that congregants should have similar access to school facilities.
"We don't decry or begrudge anybody having a prayer event or anything like that," said Graves. "It does become a problem, a serious problem, when you allow a back-to-school prayer event, but you don't allow any other religious representation."
Greaves argued that the event would allow congregants to express their religious freedom.
"We're talking about upholding fundamental pillars of democracy and the First Amendment."
FOX43 tried to get access to the Satanic Temple event, but were turned away by police who were guarding the school parking lot. One officer told us that media had to seek prior approval in order to go inside to cover the event.
The school district posted a memo on their website, saying reporters had to reach out to the superintendent in order to cover the event on school grounds. However, the school district did not release that information to FOX43 in their initial announcement of the event or anytime prior to the event.
FOX43 reached out to the superintendent for comment, but they have not responded.